Laurel View continues to grow

In 1981, a group of eight Mennonite churches came together to provide a personal care home for area residents.

They looked at the model of a number of well-established and successful church homes in Lancaster County, but it took until 1992 and a partnership with wellness foundation Lee Initiatives Inc., to break ground on a project.

Laurel View Village in Conemaugh Township was born.

The first building was a 60 bed nursing center combined with 30 personal care rooms, said CEO David Mishler.

“We liked Lee’s philosophy of personal touch and care,” he said. Together, the churches and Lee created Allegheny Christian Ministries, a dedicated nonprofit.

Volunteers and staff see the community, which has over 280 residents, as a calling, Mishler said. “I started as a pastor. The board of directors and managers have had an unwavering commitment to the vision.”

Sixty townhomes, the personal care units and the $7 million Vista wing and living complex are now set to be joined by Cambridge Place in little over a year.

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Cambridge, a 55-unit independent living and community center complex, will become the crown of the campus.

Expected to cost more than $21 million, the project will mark the end of serious growth for the community, Mishler said. Only 10 undeveloped acres will remain at the Davidsville site.

That will translate into 10 to 20 townhomes, bringing the total number of residents to more than 400. The village already employs approximately 200 people.

The Cambridge project came to fruition after two local banks, First Commonwealth Bank and Somerset Trust Company agreed to back the nonprofit’s expansion effort.

The three-story apartment building will feature one and two-bedroom units, an underground parking garage and will be connected to the community center.

It will be marketed to active, independent older adults. More than 90 people are already on the village waiting list for independent living units, Mishler said.

“The number one occupation of residents is shown to be teachers,” he said. “The biggest misconception is that people think, ‘I can’t afford this, this is too extravagant.’”

For the village to work financially, Mishler said the units will be placed on a two-fold fee structure. There is an upfront payment, or accommodation fee, and a monthly services fee for residents, he said.

The accommodation fee is scaled so that the retiree has the option of leaving family members different percentages of the investment after they move on. Monthly fees include personal services like housekeeping, some meals and upkeep.

In many cases, Medicare and Medicaid help defray costs. “That’s the balancing act of pricing our services,” he said. More than 60 volunteers also regularly work on the campus, he said.

With 15 years of working in the community, Mishler said that one thing he would like to change is the aversion of some area seniors to assisted living or a well-serviced retirement community.

“Most people wait until they have a debilitating health incident before they consider it an option,” he said. “So many of them tell me that they wish they’d moved in 10 years earlier.”